Risk of Acute MI After the Death of a Significant Person in One's Life (2012) | Hacker News Reader

Risk of Acute MI After the Death of a Significant Person in One's Life (2012)

ahajournals.org

47 pointsbookofjoe20 comments

Can we change “Acute MI” to “heart attack” in the title? “MI” isn’t necessary straightforward to understand even for those that are aware of what myocardial infarction is.

Original title as published in Circulation: "Acute Myocardial Infarction." HN 80 character title limit forced me to abbreviate it.

Changing "Acute MI" to "heart attack" and deleting "the" would work.

At the price of making the rhythm of the title less pleasing.

Harsh!

What's the point of a pleasing rhythm if its not clear what its about. If I'm just scrolling through the front page and I don't understand what a title means, I often don't even bother. Clarity first, aesthetics second.

Clarity is an aesthetic. Rhythm contributes to clarity.

My first guess for MI was mental illness, so this is very much less annoying.

That was my first thought too!

'heart attack' is very imprecise. There are a ton of different conditions that can happen that are commonly referred to as a heart attack. MI is a specific condition.

MI, while specific, is an unknown abbreviation among the average English speaking world.

Sure it can be changed through tactics like this, but I don't think "heart attack" is too imprecise for use...

My first thought was actually "Mental Illness"

I immediately thought mental illness.

My dad has this happen shortly after Christmas the year my mom died. They'd been together nearly 50 years, and I don't think he ever really considered that she might die first. After Christmas, after we kids had all gone home, he woke up one morning knowing something wasn't right. He took some aspirin, and drove himself to the hospital. He'd had a massive heart attack, and was in that mid-60's age range where they often kill you. His doctor asked him if he believed in the afterlife, and told him if he did, he must've had someone looking out for him, because he was very lucky to survive. I think a few other things may have contributed, like the fact he was very athletic most of his life, to the point his heart was more efficient than most, and that he helped take care of one of his grandkids regularly, which gave him a reason to want to continue on.

There is a TED talk titled "How to make stress your friend" [1]. It quotes several studies that indicate those who believe their stress response is helpful for them (it is the body gearing up for an important challenge, etc.) have significantly lower risk of a stress-induced medical problem, perhaps even as low as those who had minimal stress levels. The talk also mentions a study that found those who spend time helping others also received similar benefits.

I'd love to learn more about these ideas and the extent to which it is true. It definitely make some sense to me, but I still have a bit of skepticism. Anecdotally, I did feel less anxious than usual in the days after I first watched the video.

[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RcGyVTAoXEU

I saw this talk years ago and it had a profound effect on me. Every time the stress gets overwhelming, I try to identify the reasons behind it, and channel it towards my biggest concern. The stress hasn't changed, but my ability to manage it certainly improved after taking on the mindset of "my body is responding this way to help me achieve my tasks".

In a similar vein, pill bottles labeled "placebo" are helpful treatments [0], which goes further to show our minds and bodies are very interconnected. https://time.com/5375724/placebo-bill-health-problems/

This confirms similar observations that have been made since the 1960s: many kinds of stressful life events elevate the risks of getting many kinds of illnesses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale

Wow... literally dying of a broken heart. :(

Also called "taktsubo cardiomyopathy" or "heartbreak syndrome".

https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/takotsubo-cardio...

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